Malory and I had to travel through the burning forest of Sacnoth Valley to reach our next task in the Depths of Tyria. Under Captain Langmar’s orders, Swithin Nye and his company were ordered to retrieve a great dwarven weapon: Kathandrax’s Crusher. He wasn’t too specific about why they needed it, but I was assured that it would be a great service to the Ebon Vanguard. His group failed when they were attacked by charr, so it was up to us to get the job done.

Not far from our starting point, we found ourselves in a beautiful lush, green, room. And where there is life, there are probably vicious monsters waiting to eat you. This section was home to a cluster of arachnids.

It’s too bad that the rest of this area is hot and red. We encountered forge master giants, burning spirits, and flowstone elementals. If those didn’t heat our party up enough, there were also some large furnaces to do us in.

While stumbling around, we managed to kill a flame guardian, which quelled the fire traps, and later on a siege wurm, which had swallowed a key. We’ll no doubt need the key to descend further.

Above the wurm, we saw a mess of mining equipment. I haven’t seen any chained beasts yet, so I suspect it belongs to Deldrimor dwarves.

Nearing the end of this section of the Catacombs of Kathandrax, Malory was feeling unhappy about his wardrobe choice. Apparently leather and searing heat don’t go together!

The next section starts off looking lovely, with a nice cool, green hue and several shallow pools of water. However from Ebon Vanguard Nye’s descriptions I know it’s just going to get hotter.

Throughout the catacombs, we fought several Regents of Flame. At first they appear to be ordinary flowstone elementals, but actually cause much more pain with their superior fire magic.

Just about everything in these caves is out to get you: fiery monsters, fiery traps, and searing hot lava. On top of that, the fiendish scenery instills fear in the hearts of the weak willed. With all these problems to deal with, I can see why the Ebon Vanguard failed to retrieve Kathandrax’s Crusher.

Nearing the second lock, we found this awe-inspiring sight. It fits in with all the lava around here, but it also reminds me of the Destroyer’s appearance. I wanted to stay for a while and admire it, but Malory pressed me to move on. The heat is really starting to test his endurance.

In the final cave system, when a single djinn approached us with its scythe, we attacked it immediately. We had no idea that its death would stir the other monsters into a frenzy. The sheer number of foes was a bit difficult to handle.

Cutting our way through a mass of enemies, we met with a final flame djinn guarding another door. After watching it for a while, I connected it’s fighting style to that of the other flame djinn in Sorrow’s Furnace. It releases a powerful flame attack, and the damage can be mitigated by gathering around it so that everyone shares a bit of the pain instead of all of it burning one person.

We finally reached Ilsundur, Lord of Fire after fighting more of his fire minions and dodging fire traps. The tricky thing about this opponent, is that it conjures a fiery explosive in your hands. But otherwise it’s just a matter of chipping away and interrupting any fire spells cast on us, all while making sure we did not get hit by one of the two large fireballs circling the room.

I love the beautiful area Ilsundur was guarding. The Catacombs of Kathandrax are so visually striking, it’s a shame that I don’t need to come here more often. Ever eager to leave, we took our loot, the Hammer of Kathandrax and reported our success back to Swifin Nye.